Lofty goals for higher ed.

Whatever else its merits, the new business/education campaign has a great name: Grow by Degrees.

The goals of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council are lofty: to make higher education more affordable and to encourage education to such a degree — pun intended — that by 2020 the commonwealth will create 70,000 more graduates at all levels of post-secondary education.

Such a goal would ensure that half of all Virginians have college degrees.

Emphasis would be on areas such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Experts in business and education alike have warned that this nation is falling behind in post-secondary education — or rather, that we are failing to maintain our lead in almost all areas of technology and innovation. Other na-tions are rapidly catching up to and surpassing us, or will soon do so.

We dare not allow ourselves to slip behind.